Digital Ad Sales Continue to Surge Forward

On a list ranking the amount of money companies spend in regards to Google search advertisements, there were some surprising finds, according to an article recently completed for Ad Age. Generally speaking, there were a surprisingly low number of retailers on the list. Walmart and Sears Holdings Corporation spent nearly sixty million dollars apiece. In the top twenty-five, there were only an additional four retailers.

This surprised Rich Stokes, the Chief Executive Officer of AdGooroo, a Kantar Media company focused on search marketing, as retailers rely on search advertisements to push their sales forward.

However, there was one more retailer to make the list—Amazon, which came in at the very top of the list, spending just shy of one hundred and fifty eight million dollars on Google search advertisements in 2013. Some were surprised by this result, as it distinctly places Amazon in competition with Google; Amazon is now not only one of Google’s rivals for online ad spending, it is also one of the company’s largest search ad buyers.

While this news surprised some, Stokes wasn’t shocked by the results of the list. Amazon is, at its core, a retailer, and must rely on advertisements to surge forward in business. In addition, Amazon has never necessarily been afraid to spend money when it comes to investing in advertising, particularly when it involves online platforms. Recent years have seen an increase in Amazon’s business of selling search and display ads—both on its own site, and on others as well. The endeavor has paid off, as well; last year, Amazon generated seven hundred and fifty million dollars from worldwide ad revenue.

This year, that same figure is expected to pull in over one billion dollars alone for the company.
So why, with such success possible, were there not more retailers on the finalized list? The article disclaims that the vote is somewhat split; some retailers rely on advertisements entitled Product Listing Ads, which are ads for use through product-search service Google Shopping. Regardless of this minor hiccup, direct response digital advertising continues to dominate marketing; direct response ads alone accounted for nearly fifty eight and a half percent of digital ad spending in the United States in 2013.